The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of apple tree, botanically known as Malus domestica, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Gradirose’.
The new apple variety ‘Gradirose’ originated from an open-pollination in Hérault, France of Malus domestica ‘Christmas Rose’, (not patented), as the female, or seed parent, with an unknown selection of Malus domestica, as the male or pollen, parent. The new Apple tree was discovered and selected by the inventors as a single plant from within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled environment in Hérault, France in 1991.
Asexual propagation by grafting was first carried out in Maguio, France. Gradirose has been asexually reproduced by budding and grafting, since 1994 in Hérault, France, and has demonstrated that the new variety reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations.